Safety-fender for traction-cars.



E. A. DE COTEAU & H. F. CASEY.

SAFETY FENDER FOR TRACTION CARS.

APPLICATION FILEDY on. 24. 1914.

1 171 101 v I Patented Feb. 8, 1916.

FF j 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WIT/V5885 U 47%. m mz aa ATTORNEYS THE COLU nnnn A PLAN 00000 0 1 co., wAsHlNGToN, D. c.

Patented Feb. 8,1916.

INVENTORL Br I 1 ion/ms 2 SHEETS'SHEET 2- oo 5 IFW on E A.,DE COTEAU 1 H. F. CASEY.

SAFETY FENDER FOR TRACTION CARS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24, 1914.

THE COLUMBIA PMNQGRAPH c0.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

ELZEARYA. DE COTEA 'AND ENRY r. (ms-1 1v, or MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SAFETY-FENDER TRACTION-CARSI To all whom z't mag concem Be itknown that 1 we,-.E nznhn A. DE:

COTEAU and HENRY F. CASEY, citizens of i the United States,fresiding at Milford, in

the county of Worcester and State of Massa. chusetts, have ointly invented a certain new and. useful Safety-Fender for f :Traction:

Cars, of which :the followingisa specification, reference being had-to. the fa ccompanying drawings Ourilvent on relates totraction carsgenerally, but more particularly to soQcalled. street cars? of the electrically propelled type, as operated in the more or less crowded streets of cities, and: the said invention has for ,its object the provision of a Safety fender. which willoperate automati cally, and positively, to prevent accidental running over of persons or animals ewhich be struck and knocked down by such cars.

Our saidinvention is-illustrated in the fender releasing mechanism. Fig... 6 shows side and front views of the link means of which the front fender is supported normally, as well as a side view of a plate 21, secured tothe car front, for cooperating with the said link. In Fig. 7 we have shown.

a hook bymeans of-which the front fender may be raised against the car front and,

latched thereto.

Our present improvements are applied to the class of safety devices which include a fender or net that is hinged .to the front of the car, and our-improvements, briefly de-' in advance of the front scribed, consist in part of means for automatically releasing such fender,- and dropping it upon the track,when an obstruction is struck by the fender and simultaneously, a guard beam is dropped upon the rails just which guardbeam will engag'e,and' push along'upon the track, a person or other ob Specification of Letters Patent. Application-filed October 24, 1914, 1 Serial No; 868,494.

traction wheels, I

Patented Feb. 8, 1916.

struction, and thus prevent the said'person l frornbeing engaged and killed, inaimed o'r:

otherwise injured by the said-wheels.

Referring to these drawings, the numeral lOindicates the floor frame of a car and 11 denotes the front or dash-board of the same.-

Depending from the car front are brackets '12 and 13 in which is mounted to slide horizontally a'limiteddistance, a IOCl 14. which.

is, normally, forced forwardby springs '15 and: The fender proper is secured to thef rod 14k and is indicated by the numeral 17. Saidfender is: of the ordinary type, thatnis to say, it is preferably formed of a frame work bearing a net or slats that are adapted to. support a person or animalthat may be picked up by i said fender. Said fender is supported, normally, above the traction rails by means of, a chain 18" which has, at

its upperportion a ringfor link 19 that is adaptedjto engage a hook or projection20 '7 formed in a. plate 21"Se'curedtothe' car.

front the plate 21being-also fori'ned with: s l

a. downwardly -eXtending slot" 22, the ar-' rangeme'ntzbeing such that, whenthe link 19 ishooked up, as in Figs. land 6, the fender 17 will be raised a considerable distance above the traction rails but, when the link 191s allowed to drop to the bottom of slot. 22, the said fender willgbe lowered untilfiit' rests upon' the traction rails, as seen in Fig.-

2 of the drawings. If itshouldbe desired to raise the fender 17 bodily andhold itin such raised position, that maybe readily accomplished by'providingon the front board 11 of the car,.jahcatch- 23., as seen in.

Fig.7.; Justin adv nceiof the traction whee'ls 24 is a shaft 25, hung in bracket journals 26,

said shaft having secured thereto pinion.

gears-.27 and 28 which mesh, respectively,

to Slide vertically in suitable ways and are connected at their lower ends by'a bar}.or

"beam 29 as will be best understood by reference to Fig. 4=yof the drawings. One end of the shaft 25 is adapted-to receive a key or wrench by means of which the said shaft and pinion gears may berotated in order to raise the beam 29clear of the'tractionfrails and,

"in order to retain the said beam normally in e such raised position,- we provide on shaft 25 I ;a disk 30 having a peripheral notch 30 that. I is adapted to receive'the free end of a bolt; 31 of angular form, as here illustrated, the

with racks 27*" and 28 which are mounted said'bolt being carried, and adapted tobe brackets 33 and 3e.

rocked, by a rod 32 that is journaled in Extending downward from rod 32 is an arm 35 to whose free end is hinged a rod 36 whose front end is formed as a collar 37 which encircles the frame portion 14: of the fender 17 the described construction being such that, when the said fender engages an obstruction, and is pushed rearward with sufficient force to overcome the resistance of springs 15'16, the rod 36, acting through the arm 35, will rock rod 32 and will thereby withdraw the bolt 31 from the notch This permits the shaft 25 to rotate and allows the beam 29 to drop upon the traction rails. 1

We will now describe novel means for dropping the fender 17 onto the traction rails when it engages an obstruction, and simultaneously with the dropping of the beam 29. The numeral 33 denotes a lever which is fulcrumed in the lower end portion of a hanger 3 1 secured to the under side of the car frame. Connected to the front end of lever 33 is a rod 35 Whose upper end lies,

immediately under the link 19 "(see Figs. 1-6). The other end of lever 33 is connected by a link 36 with an arm 37 a that extends radially from the rod 32, the arrangement of elementary parts being such that, when the fender 17 is pushed rearward by an obstruction, as just above described, and the rod 32 is rocked 'sufliciently to withdraw bolt 31 from notch 30 the arm 35 will be moved upward sufficiently to push the link 19 off from hook 20 and thus permit the front of the fender 17 to drop onto the traction rails as seen in Fig. 2. While the weight of 10621111 29 will ordinarily be suflicient to cause said beam to drop when released, one or more springs 38 may be suitably coiled upon the shaft 25 to aid in thus forcing the beam down to its operative position.

, erance, we extend the link 36 upward to,

and through, the carfioor, so that the motorman may trip the described bolt 31 manually if he wishes to, although our described device. is designed to work automatically,

By pref thus leaving the motorman quite free to attend to the management of the car and mo tor in the event of an accident. Should a person be struck by the fender 17, the impact instantly releases both the fender 3.1K thebeam 29 and they'drop onto-the traction rails. If, by I any extraordinary circum stance, a person should not be picked up by the fender 17, but should fall to the rear of said fender, the guard beam 29 will push him along before it andthus prevent him from being crushed by the traction wheels, in short, the adoption of our present improvement will, we believe, efiectually preventthe serious injury of persons or animals resulting from collisions with traction cars. "Having thus described our invention we claim as new and wish to secure by Letters Patent V 1. .The combination with a traction car, of a guard beam, racks connected therewith, pinions engageable with said racks, a fender, a rock shaft and means carried thereby, and means movable with said pinions cooperat ing with said rocking means to control the descent of'the fender and guard.

2. The combination with a traction car, of a guard beam, racks connected therewith, pinions with which said racks are engageable, a fender, a rock shaft connected with the fender, a notched disk on the shaft of said pinions' and means movable with the rock shaft "or engaging the notch of the disk.

3. The combination with a traction car, of a guard beam, racks connected therewith, pinions with which said racks are engageable, "a fender, a rock shaft connected with the fender,'a notched disk on the shaft of said pinions, means movable with the rock shaft for engaging the notch of the disk, support for the forward end of the fender, and means movable with said rock shaft for disconnecting said means to allow the front of the fender to drop.

ELZEAR A. DE COTEAU. HENRY F. CASEY.-

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' I WashingtonJ). 0. 

